The Sequester Came, Obama Ordered Maximum Pain

And the Stock Market Set All Time Record Highs

          Obama delivered on his threats to exact maximum pain on America because HIS sequester has gone into effect.  Obama had proposed the unsound idea of across the board cuts to the military and the discretionary portions of the budget as part of his scheme to get Congress to raise the debt ceiling before his re-election.  Now that he is re-elected and his sequestration has gone into effect, Obama and his minions have started to wreak intentional havoc on Americans.  The stock market had other ideas.  Despite Obama’s histrionics, on March 5, 2013, the Tuesday after Obama’s sequester went into effect, the Dow Jones Industrial Average established an all time high of 14,253.85, the Nasdaq hit 3,224.13, a level not seen since November 2000, and the S&P 500 hit 1,539.79, which was a new high not seen since November 2007.  The Dow Jones continued its upward trajectory for the rest of the week and set records for the next seven days and is on a winning streak of ten days and counting.  Apparently, unlike Obama, the stock market thinks that cutting government spending is a very good thing, even if it is by Obama’s unfortunate sequester.  Many people, including those trading in the stock market think the sequester is the only way Obama can be forced to cut government spending.

          Meanwhile, Obama’s faithful Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (D) could not wait for the sequester to kick in.  Just days before the sequester took effect, she released over 2,000 illegal immigrants from prison in Arizona and threatened to release over 3,000 more.  Since these prisoners were being held pursuant to a court order, Janet Napolitano’s actions are not only outrageous but appear to have broken the law.  Governor of Arizona Jan Brewer (R) said Napolitano’s actions are the “height of absurdity” given that the release was before the sequester had even gone into effect.  Furthermore, also before the sequester Immigration Customs Enforcement, which reports to Napolitano, said it would release 10,000 illegal detainees nationwide.

          On March 1^st, on Fox News Channel (FNC)’s “American Newsroom,” Governor Brewer said that beyond the sequester, there was another reason for releasing the illegal detainees.   In response to host Bill Hemmer’s question, “Why do you think this happened in Arizona, in your state?”  Governor Brewer said:

          “Well, you know, I personally believe that it could be pay back, it could be to punish Arizona, make them squirm. They are pushing back on what we are pushing on because we want our borders secured. And we’re strong about it.  We believe in the rule of law, which they should be upholding.  And they’re not.”

          HEMMER: “Do you think they are picking on you?”

 

BREWER: “I think it’s obvious they are doing everything in their power. This is just another notch in their belt, if you will. They are suing Arizona - when did you see the federal government sue a state?”

 

Texas Governor Rick Perry also responded to the Obama/Napolitano/ICE release of illegal immigrants, since those releases also took place in Texas, Georgia and California.  On Greta Van Susteren’s “On The Record,” FNC, 3/5/13, Governor Perry called the release of illegal immigrants a “Federally sponsored jailbreak”.

           Perry continued:

           When you start talking about turning loose individuals, who could be quite criminal in their nature, that’s quite a big problem, and this Administration needs to be thoughtful about how you deal with the sequester issue and cutting and prioritizing.  We do it in the states every day. This seems to be a plan to scare as many Americans as we can—to put as much pain onto individuals….I think this President has a political agenda that he is driving, not one that’s looking to solve problems in this country.”

           Also on Greta’s “On The Record,” Paul Babeu, Sheriff of Pinal County in Arizona, said the release of illegal immigrants is a danger to public safety.  He said that when he contacted ICE for information about the release, at first ICE tried to conceal that it happened, and then they lied about the number and nature of the persons released.   He is demanding that Congress hold a public inquiry.  California’s Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, who is the head of the Congressional Oversight Committee and sits on the Judiciary Committee, said that the Judiciary and the Homeland Security Committees have already launched investigations into Napolitano’s ICE’s illegal release of illegal immigrants and that the Oversight Committee will work with those investigations.

           Issa also said Obama’s own Inspector General has pointed out $67 billion in Federal Government waste that would be a better place to start cutting than releasing illegal immigrants.  However, Obama refuses to listen to his own Inspector General.  Id.  Apparently, Obama is more interested in pursuing his agenda of inflicting pain on the American people.  There is more flexibility in the sequester than the President is admitting and the House Republicans offered a bill to give the Executive Branch more flexibility in making the cuts, but the President wasn’t interested.  He wants to exact maximum pain.

           The pain campaign continues with the military cuts, where Obama is cutting training, maintenance and the deployment of the carrier USS Harry S. Truman, as well as threatening massive layoffs and furloughs of civilian and military DOD personnel.  The USS Truman was scheduled to deploy on March 1st, and Obama personally approved the order to stop the deployment.  The order stopping that deployment will mean that the US will only have one carrier deployed to the Persian Gulf.

           The TSA agreed to buy $50 million in new uniforms just before the sequester went into effect, at the same time Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that the sequester could result in flight delays of 90 minutes and warned of furloughing air traffic controllers.  Janet Napolitano backed up LaHood on the furloughs and stated long lines were already forming at airports, a claim denied by airport officials.  “TSA signs $50 million uniform deal, as billions in federal cuts ripple across America,” FoxNews.com, 3/6/13.  TV cameras deployed at airports have shown that the lines were short.

           Tennessee Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn criticized Napolitano by saying:

           I find it deeply disturbing that Secretary Janet Napolitano is running around scaring people by saying she is going to have to furlough employees because of the sequester and that she would also spend $50 million of taxpayer money on new uniforms.  This is classic failure in leadership.  Id.

           Rep. Blackburn also stated that DHS had the flexibility in the sequester to “cut waste, fraud and abuse from its budget.”  Id.

           At the other extreme Obama ordered the cancellation of tours of the White House to rub his sequester in the face of taxpaying Americans and school children who had previously scheduled trips to Washington with visits to the White House.  The tour guides are volunteers and several prominent individuals have offered to raise the money to cover the rest of the costs.  Some commentators have pointed out that Obama’s weekend golf trip to Florida to play a round of golf with Tiger Woods would have covered the cost of keeping the White House open.  Naturally, Obama has rejected such offers of private individuals raising money for White House tours, because he wants to inflict maximum pain on Americans, if he cannot get “his own way.”  And we know that Obama’s way consists of inflicting another type of pain on Americans:  the pain of higher taxes.

           Finally, Yellowstone National Park said it would delay opening the park by two to three weeks, because of the sequester.  On “Your World With Neil Cavuto,” FNC, 3/11/13, Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal said he thinks the Obama Administration is not looking to find waste.  “They are looking for the things that are most sensitive to the American taxpayer.”  Steve’s position was supported by a statement by a Park Ranger, who has been quoted as saying his Supervisors said they “want the public to feel the pain.”  Id.  Steve Moore also pointed out that Obama’s own budget found hundreds of millions of dollars that were duplicative and could be cut without doing anything to our environment.  Id.

           Professor Thomas Sowell of Stanford University predicted all of this in his insightful column in Investors Business Daily on 3/05/13, p. A15.  He explained that big government will always cut the most popular programs during a budget squeeze so that the public will demand their reinstatement and thus defeat the budget cuts; there’s no point in cutting things that the public won’t notice.  Obama’s histrionics and actions and those of his Administration are all political ploys to inflict pain and punishment on Americans and blame the Republicans.  Hopefully, the American people will see through Obama’s political stunts.